Tuesday, March 18, 2014

As a polish fanatic I have many vices. One of those is for the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri line of polishes. Anytime a new collection comes out I have to have them. I use them almost exclusively for stamping and nail art as well as when I need a polish to wear and am short on time. I started my love affair with them after I would use my hour long lunches from work to drive over to my nearest CVS or Walmart and buy a polish then paint my nails in my car. I did this many times and started to collect some really cool shades. After I discovered stamping I went crazy and bought a ton of them. The majority of them would be opaque in one coat and dry very quickly. Not all the polishes in the Insta-Dri line are so opaque, one such polish was a shifting polish called Grape Going!.

Today while browsing my local Walmart I spotted a purple shade of polish that I hadn't seen before. It was similar to Orchid Express which was a LE. I grabbed it and immediately did a double take. The label said 410 Grape Going! but this was a super purple shade not the blue/purple flash sheer polish I knew I had in my stash. I dug back behind the other two bottles in the display case to find that exact bottle I recalled.

Both bottles were labeled the exact same. Product number 410 (polish on my nails is OPI I Theodora You)

Side by Side New bottle on the left, old bottle on the right.

Pointer and ring fingers are the new bottles. Middle and pinkie are old. I did my thumb in Orchid Express just for color comparison. The new Grape Going! is darker but very similar.

L to R Grape Going! new, Grape Going! old and Orchid Express.

As you can see it looks like they have switched to a new more opaque polish. There is nothing remotely similar in these polishes save for the name and the fact they are purple. I wish they had just gave the new one a different name. I am not sure if they are discontinuing the old one so get it while you still can. I will be using the new one for stamping for sure. It's so pretty.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Good evening! I have a ton of things coming up for my blog this weekend. I have been working on some incredible macro shots and some videos so expect a few posts to catch me up.

In the meantime, I wanted to explain why I am using the name Miss Kitty Nails for my blog. I know when I first decided to create a blog I had a little trouble coming up with a name that I could use. Since it seems like so many people are blogging about nail polish most of the names I came up with were either already taken or not really a good fit for me. I really want to eventually make my own polish brand and I wanted to keep that long term goal in mind as I chose my online persona.

I chose Miss Kitty Nails actually because of something that my boyfriend suggested. Miss Kitty is our senior aged cat. She was adopted by him from a local rescue nearly 20 years ago. She wasn't a kitten back then either so we have no idea how old she is. Miss Kitty is one of the most precious creatures on this Earth. She's adorable, she's incredibly loving and she makes me smile every single day. She is my inspiration as I do what I do to take care of her and my other cats. I wanted a name that was fun and playful and could be made into a cute logo someday. I hope that clarifies things a little to anyone who might have been curious about it.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Sometimes the name of a nail polish can make it just that more awesome. For me, that name is from the Scofflaw polish called David Bowie's Bulge. Inspired by the Aladdin Sane album cover, this polish is one of a kind. I am a huge fan of crelly glitter polishes and this baby is no exception. Described as a rich, deep coral polish with subtle shimmer. It's accented with matte
and holographic teal glitters of various sizes and also features small
dark red glitters and a bronze microglitter." it really has a lot going on. I love the complexity of this polish.

I have so many untried polishes and David Bowie's Bulge was on that list. I decided I wanted to do something special when I wore it. I purchased some nail plates recently and have not used them either so it was a perfect fit. I used the Special Edition plate from My Online Shop to create my own stamping decals. I plan on doing a post about that soon.

The Little Mermaid stamping decals

I used my favorite creme polish, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, for the remaining three fingers. For each decal I used a very tiny dotting tool to paint on the polish. I used 100% nail polish for all the decals. For Flounder I used mostly Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes. His fins are a combination of Blue-Away and Blue-ming Fast. His tongue as well as Sebastians are Fuschia Flare also from the Insta-Dri line. For his body I used my go to yellow in Lightening. His eyes are Milani White on the Spot. For Ariel I used Sinful Colors in Poudre
for her skin and first layered Sinful Colors in Citrine for her hair. I
thought it was a bit too orange and since Citrine was almost jelly like
I layered Sinful Colors Laced Up on top. (err actually underneath).
For Sebastian I used Laced Up on most of his body with his face in Essie
Mamba and his shell in OPI Painted Desert Cinnamon. I topped everything off with a coat of KB
Shimmer Clearly On Top because it's my favorite top coat in the history
of ever.